It was my first time to submit a research paper in a national conference. In the academe, getting support is a challenging task because you need to convince the admin that the paper you will be presenting is worth the expenses.

I’m happy that my boss, the dean of the school was supportive of this initiative. The research was about how to detect anonymous traffic within a local area network (LAN) using different patterns. You can read my paper here and here.

I submitted the paper twice because of the recommendations given by the reviewers. Overall, the paper got a good rating and was given a go signal for presentation.

====================

The travel time from Manila to Dipolog is around 50 minutes. I stayed in Hotel Camila 1 which is 15 minutes away from the airport. Most of the hotels provide a service from the airport to their place.

The hotel I stayed in was modest but it had the basic amenities in a usual hotel. For the 3 nights I stayed, I only paid around 3,300 pesos, although I had to buy breakfast on my own.

Dipolog is generally safe. The city is not yet fully developed and the mode of commute around the place is through tricycles. I was surprised because majority of the time that I was in the hotel, a lot of the people there were carrying guns. Some of them were in military uniform while others were not.

There were a couple of times too that we (Ashley and I) felt that somebody was following us. That’s why I advise those who plan to visit to remain vigilant and alert always.

The tricycle drivers, waiters and waitresses, vendors, receptionists and majority of those I interacted with were helpful and hospitable. We were able to walk around the famous boardwalk at the Sunset Blvd. and had food trips in different restaurants/cafe such as D’Hotel and Chapters A Book Cafe. One notable thing with their food is that it is cheap but with quality.